Report: Travis Kelce Agrees to Adjusted Contract with Chiefs

Kansas City's superstar tight end sees a change to his 2022 salary and subsequent contract structure.

The Kansas City Chiefs are busy at training camp this summer, but that didn't stop general manager Brett Veach and his staff from working some contract magic before the end of July. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the deal of star tight end Travis Kelce has been adjusted ahead of the 2022 season:

The Chiefs and star TE Travis Kelce have agreed to terms on an adjusted contract to give him a raise in 2022, sources say. Money is moved from the back of the deal to properly compensate Kelce.

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Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) on Wednesday, July 27 at 8:30 a.m. CST 

Rapoport adds that the Chiefs simply moved $3 million from the tail end of Kelce's deal and moved it up to the current year. Per Field Yates of ESPN, Kelce's updated 2022 camp number is $11.86M and his updated 2023 one is $13.61M.

Kelce, who is coming off a season that saw him haul in 92 passes for 1,125 yards and nine touchdowns, has been one of the more underpaid players in the NFL for quite some time now. Pending any complete changes via his contract adjustment on Wednesday, his four-year, $57.25M extension had him trailing San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle in terms of average annual value and a whopping seven tight ends league-wide in total guaranteed money. Back in May, Kittle appeared on the PFT PM podcast and praised Kelce for being a player who produces like a receiver but not getting paid accordingly:

I mean Travis Kelce, six seasons in a row, 1000 yards. I’m pretty sure he has the most receiving yards over any wide receiver, skill position in the last six years. He gets paid half of what a wide receiver makes, which just boggles my mind. I mean, to me, Travis Kelce, he’s been doing it for so long and at such a high level. And he doesn’t have an off game. I think he has one bad game a year, and it’s just because he’s getting triple-teamed.

By taking money from the back of Kelce's deal and moving it forward to now, the Chiefs are presumably eating up some of their current cap room in exchange for a lower cap hit number from their 32-year-old tight end down the line. Before the adjustment, Kelce's deal was slated to carry hits of $8.86M this year, $14.65M in 2023, $16.4M in 2024 and $18.65M in 2025. The future Hall of Famer is on record admitting that money is "almost secondary" at this stage of his career but for the 2022 campaign, he's at least getting closer to what he'd likely receive on the open market.